Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2018

The Late Qing and the May Fourth Movement: From Reforming Classical Chinese to Reforming the Vernacular

(Abstract)

Hu Quanzhang and Guan Aihe

In the course of the changes that took place in Chinese literature from the late Qing to the May Fourth period, the transformation of the language paradigm was a milestone with critical ontological significance. In the late Qing, Liang Qichao’s efforts to reform classical Chinese and bring the high-flown classical language down to common usage created a new written style that mixed the classical and the vernacular and joined Chinese and Western literary styles. The new style, with its intellectual tension and strong passions, catalyzed the reform of Chinese literature and the written language in the late Qing and early Republic. During the May Fourth Movement, Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu enshrined vernacular literature as an orthodoxy. Their efforts to reform the vernacular and raise it to an elevated style created a new literature and language suited to expressing modern sentiments and established a new pattern for modern vernacular literature. The new style of the late Qing, which mixed spoken and written Chinese, and the May Fourth Movement, which unified the spoken and written language, constitute a continuous and self-consistent process in the modern evolution of Chinese literature and the written language.